Late Goal Sinks Buffalo Sabres

You just know it's coming. Even on a night when they give a full effort during this season to forget, the Buffalo Sabres are going to give up a key goal that loses another game. The Sabres played the New York Rangers eyeball to eyeball for 58 minutes Thursday night in New York but a bad line change led to the Rangers' best chance of the night and they made it count to defeat the Sabres 2-1.

The Sabres opened the scoring on a deflection by Drew Stafford in the second period and after the Rangers tied it, with time winding down it looked like the Sabres and Rangers were headed to overtime. Rick Nash's winning goal with less than two minutes to play eliminated the need for extra time and sent the Sabres to their ninth loss in the last 10 games.

Two games left for the Sabres - in Boston Saturday afternoon and on Sunday in Buffalo against the New York Islanders.